Seven 9s and 10s

Thank You

…to both Dan Wineman and Neven Mrgan for their reblogs of my post about iA Writer. Honestly, my original post wasn’t necessarily even about that application as much as it was about the fact that I just didn’t understand software pricing models.

Dan and Neven each provided great feedback and anyone that is as unsure about why certain applications are priced certain ways should definitely read their posts for some good insight and clarification.

Also, don’t hesitate to support the applications that these two guys produce. Unlike iA Writer, for which I’ll probably never have a use, I frequently use Audio Hijack Pro (Dan works at Rogue Amoeba) and The Incident (Neven designed everything you see).

High-res gastricfutures: steelopus: Alright. This has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Frankly, I don’t use either of these pieces of software so I don’t really have a horse in the race, I’m just extremely confused. I’m not a programmer/software engineer, but I can’t imagine that the same amount of work went into writing the code for iA Writer than did the code for Pages. I know. I know. It’s not fair to compare them. Oranges and Apples. Different resources, vastly different sales volume & demand, etc. Completely different playing fields. But seriously? $20 for an app that is basically a scaled down version of TextEdit vs $20 for an app that is a genuinely good word processor and page layout tool? Can anyone explain to me how that makes any sense? I’m sure the iA Writer people are talented and great at what they do and deserve every penny that they are charging, and I admit, I’m a cheap-ass son of a bitch… but… seriously? $20? All I’d be able to think about while enjoying it’s distraction-free writing environment is how I just paid $20 for something that does 1/1,000 of an app that comes pre-installed on my system. I’d be so distracted by the $20 hole in my iTunes account that I’d never even get a chance to see that fancy blur-out-your-last-sentence effect. Anyway. Ignore me. I’m a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy. I just don’t get software pricing.  iA is a small group, compared to Apple. They provide a niche product, and have to charge enough for it to make profit. The same thing happens everywhere. If I make a game that only 10,000 people will want to buy/play, then I need to charge more for it than a game that millions of people will play. Now, there are exceptions to the rule, because most all corporations are made of money-grabbing greedy bastards who think that $100 is a good price for an operating system, or $800 is a fine price for a piece of photomanipulation software.  I figured someone would bring up this argument, but I don’t think the size of the company has anything to do with how much they should charge for their product. For example, let’s look at The Incident. It sells for a mere 99 cents. It was conceived, designed, and engineered by only two guys - and I won’t believe anyone that tries to tell me that more time was spent programming iA Writer than The Incident. Each of the falling objects in The Incident was drawn, pixel-by-pixel, by hand. Hours upon hours of painstaking work, and that’s just the stuff we see. How can a two-man operation afford to sell their product for 99 cents? Have they devalued themselves by pricing their game so low? I don’t think so. I think they understand that selling 100,000 copies at $1 is better than selling ~5000 copies at $20, because that’s an additional 95,000 happy customers that will sing the praises of their product and maybe even support them in the future.

gastricfutures:

steelopus:

Alright. This has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Frankly, I don’t use either of these pieces of software so I don’t really have a horse in the race, I’m just extremely confused.

I’m not a programmer/software engineer, but I can’t imagine that the same amount of work went into writing the code for iA Writer than did the code for Pages. I know. I know. It’s not fair to compare them. Oranges and Apples. Different resources, vastly different sales volume & demand, etc. Completely different playing fields.

But seriously? $20 for an app that is basically a scaled down version of TextEdit vs $20 for an app that is a genuinely good word processor and page layout tool? Can anyone explain to me how that makes any sense?

I’m sure the iA Writer people are talented and great at what they do and deserve every penny that they are charging, and I admit, I’m a cheap-ass son of a bitch… but… seriously? $20?

All I’d be able to think about while enjoying it’s distraction-free writing environment is how I just paid $20 for something that does 1/1,000 of an app that comes pre-installed on my system. I’d be so distracted by the $20 hole in my iTunes account that I’d never even get a chance to see that fancy blur-out-your-last-sentence effect.

Anyway. Ignore me. I’m a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy. I just don’t get software pricing. 

iA is a small group, compared to Apple. They provide a niche product, and have to charge enough for it to make profit. The same thing happens everywhere. If I make a game that only 10,000 people will want to buy/play, then I need to charge more for it than a game that millions of people will play. Now, there are exceptions to the rule, because most all corporations are made of money-grabbing greedy bastards who think that $100 is a good price for an operating system, or $800 is a fine price for a piece of photomanipulation software. 

I figured someone would bring up this argument, but I don’t think the size of the company has anything to do with how much they should charge for their product.

For example, let’s look at The Incident. It sells for a mere 99 cents. It was conceived, designed, and engineered by only two guys - and I won’t believe anyone that tries to tell me that more time was spent programming iA Writer than The Incident. Each of the falling objects in The Incident was drawn, pixel-by-pixel, by hand. Hours upon hours of painstaking work, and that’s just the stuff we see. How can a two-man operation afford to sell their product for 99 cents? Have they devalued themselves by pricing their game so low? I don’t think so. I think they understand that selling 100,000 copies at $1 is better than selling ~5000 copies at $20, because that’s an additional 95,000 happy customers that will sing the praises of their product and maybe even support them in the future.

(via marvin-the-paranoid-android-dea)

High-res Alright. This has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Frankly, I don’t use either of these pieces of software so I don’t really have a horse in the race, I’m just extremely confused. I’m not a programmer/software engineer, but I can’t imagine that the same amount of work went into writing the code for iA Writer than did the code for Pages. I know. I know. It’s not fair to compare them. Oranges and Apples. Different resources, vastly different sales volume & demand, etc. Completely different playing fields. But seriously? $20 for an app that is basically a scaled down version of TextEdit vs $20 for an app that is a genuinely good word processor and page layout tool? Can anyone explain to me how that makes any sense? I’m sure the iA Writer people are talented and great at what they do and deserve every penny that they are charging, and I admit, I’m a cheap-ass son of a bitch… but… seriously? $20? All I’d be able to think about while enjoying it’s distraction-free writing environment is how I just paid $20 for something that does 1/1,000 of an app that comes pre-installed on my system. I’d be so distracted by the $20 hole in my iTunes account that I’d never even get a chance to see that fancy blur-out-your-last-sentence effect. Anyway. Ignore me. I’m a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy. I just don’t get software pricing. 

Alright. This has been bugging me for a few weeks now. Frankly, I don’t use either of these pieces of software so I don’t really have a horse in the race, I’m just extremely confused.

I’m not a programmer/software engineer, but I can’t imagine that the same amount of work went into writing the code for iA Writer than did the code for Pages. I know. I know. It’s not fair to compare them. Oranges and Apples. Different resources, vastly different sales volume & demand, etc. Completely different playing fields.

But seriously? $20 for an app that is basically a scaled down version of TextEdit vs $20 for an app that is a genuinely good word processor and page layout tool? Can anyone explain to me how that makes any sense?

I’m sure the iA Writer people are talented and great at what they do and deserve every penny that they are charging, and I admit, I’m a cheap-ass son of a bitch… but… seriously? $20?

All I’d be able to think about while enjoying it’s distraction-free writing environment is how I just paid $20 for something that does 1/1,000 of an app that comes pre-installed on my system. I’d be so distracted by the $20 hole in my iTunes account that I’d never even get a chance to see that fancy blur-out-your-last-sentence effect.

Anyway. Ignore me. I’m a bang-for-the-buck kind of guy. I just don’t get software pricing. 

Do you want to clean the keyboard on your Mac laptop without shutting down first? It’s safe and easy thanks to Keyboard Cleaner, one of my favorite freeware apps. Simply install this single-function app and open it when you want to clean your keyboard. It will darken your screen and disable your keys allowing you to scrub away without fear. When you’re done, simply press the standard Command+Q shortcut to quit the app and you’re back where you were. Download it for free at this link: http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/48-Keyboard-Cleaner.html

Do you want to clean the keyboard on your Mac laptop without shutting down first?

It’s safe and easy thanks to Keyboard Cleaner, one of my favorite freeware apps.

Simply install this single-function app and open it when you want to clean your keyboard. It will darken your screen and disable your keys allowing you to scrub away without fear. When you’re done, simply press the standard Command+Q shortcut to quit the app and you’re back where you were.

Download it for free at this link: http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/48-Keyboard-Cleaner.html

High-res This is not my GPOYW. This is me holding the install DVDs for Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio.  17 DVDs in all: 9 for FCS and 8 for LS.  Insanity. Soon I’ll get to install them and then pull an image for distribution that should be somewhere in the ballpark of 45-50GBs.  I apologize in advance for any worldwide network slowdowns that occur on the day I push that gigantic image to our Mac lab.

This is not my GPOYW.

This is me holding the install DVDs for Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio.  17 DVDs in all: 9 for FCS and 8 for LS.  Insanity.

Soon I’ll get to install them and then pull an image for distribution that should be somewhere in the ballpark of 45-50GBs.  I apologize in advance for any worldwide network slowdowns that occur on the day I push that gigantic image to our Mac lab.